Let's make our OWN motto!
by Soliloquy Addams
Summary: Team Rocket wanting to "protect" the world and "unite" all people makes no sense, does it? It does after THIS explanation of the special motto. PG for trashing middle class values. Young Jessie and James and a touching "us versus everybody else" theme.


Let's Make Our OWN Motto  
  
Soliloquy Addams  
  
Author: I can barely take credit for this. My two favorite people wrote it for me, practically, in the middle of another story.  
  
Whoever knows those two better than I do, whether you agree with this outlook or not, I bow to you.  
  
...And thanks to all the writers who gave such a rich history to a couple of animated villains. Much love!  
  
  
  
*Lesser-known Team Rocket chant, the version used by Butch and Cassidy*  
  
Prepare for trouble.  
  
Make it double.  
  
To infect the world with devastation.  
  
To blight all people in every nation.  
  
To denounce the goodness of truth and love.  
  
To extend our wrath to the stars above.  
  
(names)  
  
Team Rocket, circling the globe all day and night.  
  
Surrender to us now, or you will surely lose the fight.  
  
The duo were about 15 or so, staying in a lousy hotel room in some unimportant town. James walked in holding a bottle of saki. Jessie exclaimed, "How did you get that? We're underage, and illegal!" They contained themselves straight-faced for about a minute, then collapsed in fits of laughter.  
  
They both sat cross-legged on the same shabby bed, and James poured into two dingy cups. Jessie saluted, "The end of one more day of larsony."  
  
An hour or two later, Jessie sat with her back against the headboard and her legs straight and level. James had relocated to a pillow on the floor, slouched against a bedpost, forearms resting on bent knees, and facing the rest of the room.  
  
They made another of numerous toasts. This one was simply the Team Rocket motto, with both of them saying every line together in unison instead of in turns. "Prepare for trouble. Make it double. To infect the world with devastation. To blight all people in every nation. To denounce the evils of truth and love."  
  
Jessie pointed out, "You said it wrong. It's supposed to be, 'denounce the goodness'."  
  
"When was truth and love ever good to me, huh? Tell me that. Look at my family." She frowned. "The 'truth' is that, donate a few bucks to charity and get on a few city boards. Those 'pillars of the community' have the whole city kissing their butts, meanwhile--" He thumped the floor in fury for what those people are really like, and mumbled a little of their history.  
  
"They should be locked up serving time for abuse!" Jessie screamed.  
  
He let his head fall backwards on the bed he leaned against. His sapphire hair spilled away from his face and brow, straight against his shoulder, except for the one wisp that rested on his cheek. A pained expression, mouth grimacing and brow furrowed, took his visage. "You know, I called what they did a lot of things -- cruel, dysfunctional -- but it never crossed my mind to call that house criminal."  
  
"You were a kid," Jessie offered.  
  
He held up a hand with the middle three fingers raisesd. "Wanna hear something else? Of the three people who said they loved me, every single one made me a slave. Not one grain of liking buried in somewhere, the way some people are mean but in a way want what's best for you? Not even that."  
  
Jessie sat quietly, thinking. She could figure his parents, but the third? "Who was number three," she whispered.  
  
"The psycho sadist my parents betrothed me to. Sure, she said it -- minutes before she whipped, 'punish' me to improvement," he spat. He suspected his words weren't exactly coming out in perfect structure but they made sense to him. "And that sadistic harpy is the 'darling' of the neighborbood."  
  
Fortunately Jessie wasn't much better in the syntax department at the moment. "This guy are sick! I mean, these people are sick!" She became more agitated. "If you think about it, all you and I do that's so wrong is catch pokemon. Some of them don't even have owners; half of them are wild herds." She quit rambling and got back to her point. "I'm saying all we mess with is property. That's nothing compared to..." She couldn't think of the words to finish.  
  
"Yeah," James uttered with little energy and less emotion. "Truth and love are hypocrisy," he concluded.  
  
Jessie waited a moment before speaking her tale. "I didn't have an easy time either." She thought of her many failed careers, one right after another, starting with childhood in poverty. "My family was so poor, all my presents were either homemade or stories. That was what we did to give nice things -- huddle under a quilt and give gifts of stories."  
  
James was silent for a bit, so Jessie continued.  
  
"But mother did teach me one thing. You might not get what you want, but if you give up, your odds drop to zero. Never stop reaching for the stars."  
  
"Heh. To extend our reach to the stars above."  
  
The corners of her lips crinkled in glad surprise. "James..." She rolled over, the sudden movement making her equilibrium dizzy, and hugged one arm around his collarbone with her cheek against his ear. By intinctive reflex he raised a hand at first touch, and it so happened to land on hers. Once he knew what was going on, he let it be until she separated.  
  
Through the open window and spread blinds came a sight of yellow city lights against the abject black night while a siren cried. An ambulance siren, to be precise. Those two, of all people, make it their business to know the difference and did not stir a muscle at the alarm. "You know what's funny? The cops are out looking for me, and you too, when they ought to be knocking on the Estate's door!" James slumped over and sprawled on the floor, twitching with unbalanced hysterical laughter.  
  
Jessie couldn't tell if that kid of laughing was healthy or not, but she let him be. She would have patted his back or something for comfort, but crawling out of bed and on the floor was too far for her at the moment. "The world should have someone go after people like that. Maybe outlaws like us." Now she took her turn contributing a line. "To protect the world from devastation."  
  
James quit rolling and looked up from the carpet, and tried to re-gather his buzzy thoughts. "Why?"  
  
"Cuz what they do is worse than any damage we would come up with," she reminded him.  
  
"True." He poured another mug of saki and held it in pledge before taking a mouthful. "We may be lawbreakers but we're not the evil ones."  
  
"And while we're at it, we can recruit all the people on the outside -- who aren't involved but turn a blind eye to what happened with both our families." That was the worst of childhood for her, not the hunger or wearing the same clothes every couple days, but knowing people see her plight but turn away -- and in fact treat her worse because of it. She made the next line, "To unite all people within our nation."  
  
He paused to think it over. "You got it. And as long as we're rebuilding the poem, let's keep going. Do we need to do anything to the first two lines?"  
  
"No, they're fine. How do we make the last verse more 'us'?" Jessie reached an arm in his direction with fingers outstretched. James saw what she was after and passed the bottle her way. She got another cupful. "The Organization is one thing, but if it's for us personally, I myself don't wanna circle the globe all day and night." She swallowed a mouthful, balanced the drink on the headboard, and lied down showing her tiredness.  
  
"Us versus everybody else," he ruminated. "We haven't even been that hot on average missions lately." Neither of them liked the persistent cold streak that had started to set in. "So somehow I doubt the rest of the world would surely lose the fight."  
  
"I know-- We just decided on our new mission statement, to find what we want, so-- surrender now or perpare to fight fight fight. The extra 'fights' are because we're going to be a lot of that. Doing a lot of that," she drunkenly amended.  
  
Jessie continued. "But no matter what, I want to get somewhere. We bounce from town to town to town, but it's all the same thing. I'm serious about reaching for the stars. I want to get somewhere for real."  
  
James rose to his knees and stared directly at his partner. "Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light."  
  
The next morning/noon/afternoon, (time hardly matters when you're practically homeless, and your best work is at night in any case), whenever it was, they crawled off the bed and floor, respectively. They cleaned up, making the most of the night's shelter, then went about their work and set off after the next target. Neither recollected much of what they talked about, particularly the big revelations, and it was almost as if they wanted to keep it that way. It couldn't be helped, and in any case the suffering was all part of their past lives anyhow.  
  
The day started off like any other -- dropping an attack on unlucky trainers who had stronger, rarer, or more valuable pokemon than they deserved. Jessie and James set off a cloud of flash powder and appeared in their path then recited their chant, all intended to spook, disorient, and frighten the adversaries out of their wits. All was proceeding just like any other day, but their stance (back to back with arms linked, right over left) had an extra quality to it, as if to say "I got your back, partner" or "I'm right behind you all the way" in more ways than one. When they began their credo, their own words flowed forth as if this had always meant to be.  
  
To protect the world from devastation  
  
To unite all peoples within our nation  
  
To denounce the evils of truth and love  
  
To extend our reach to the stars above  
  
Jessie!  
  
James!  
  
Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light  
  
Surrender now or prepare to fight fight fight  
  
  
  
==Please review and say anything! == 


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